


Kiku no Sekku

by cupsofstardust



Series: one hundred ways to say "i love you" [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crushes, Flowers, Fluff, Language of Flowers, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-10-21 01:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20685317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupsofstardust/pseuds/cupsofstardust
Summary: This is stupid. It's idiotic. It's Naruto levels of dumb, but here he is.





	Kiku no Sekku

**Author's Note:**

> Number two on [this list.](https://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you)
> 
> Happy birthday Naruto!

This is embarrassing.

This is _mortifying._

He regrets his decision the minute he walks into Yamanaka Flowers and Ino's eyes land on him, excitement etched into her features.

"Sasuke-kun!" she exclaims in a sickly sweet voice. "How can I help you?"

He resists the urge to roll his eyes, instead gesturing to the window display. "I want one of those."

Ino's eyes land on the flowers there, her nose wrinkling. "You want a chrysanthemum?"

"An orange one," he clarifies dully.

_"Orange?"_

He stares blankly at her, uninterested in answering her redundant question. She seems to shrink a little, then she moves around the counter and takes one flower from the bucket of chrysanthemums and sets to work cutting it down.

"You don't want like, a bouquet?" she asks, watching him come up to the counter.

Sasuke shakes his head. 

Ino sighs and then moves it over to the wrapping station, where she covers the stem in plastic and ties it off with a bow. She brings it back and quietly attaches a tag to it. "What would you like your message to be?" 

He seems to think about it for a second, then says, "Just the meaning of the flower is fine."

She furrows her brow and purses her lips, but writes it neatly on the card.

When she starts to head for the wrapping station, he stops her. "Ah, actually, can I have the pen?"

She feels a spear of jealousy lance through her when she glances back at him, noting the slight blush high on his cheeks. Whoever the recipient is, she's a luckier girl than Ino. She just hopes it isn't Billboard Brow.

She frowns, but slides it over and places the flower in front of him. 

He leans over it so she can't see and scribbles something on the other side of the card. Then he puts the pen down and pulls out some money to pay for it.

She calls a goodbye to his retreating back, but he doesn't respond with much more than a noncommittal hum. 

Sasuke steps out of the suffocating, flowery air of the shop and takes a deep breath, glancing down at the flower in his fist. He sighs to himself.

This is so stupid.

This is _so stupid._

But his feet carry him down the road anyway, dust shifting under his shoes and wind blowing through his hair as he treks down a path his muscles remember well. It's cool out today, but not enough to make him shiver.

He grips the stem of the flower tighter in his hands until the color drains from his knuckles as his treacherous heart beats a furious tattoo against his ribcage, his blood spiked with sudden icy nervousness.

He swallows tightly, his own throat working against him. 

This is stupid, he thinks again. It's idiotic. It's Naruto levels of dumb, but here he is.

He glares up at the apartment building in front of him like it's responsible for the swarm of monarchs taking up residence in his stomach. He manages to wrench a foot off the ground in a reluctant, hesitant step, then another, then—

"Sasuke-kun!"

He blinks, some instinct forcing him to hide the stupid flower behind his back. He hadn't even noticed Sakura, would testify that she hadn't even been in the vicinity, and he wonders now if she's developed some kind of invisibility jutsu. Is that even possible?

She's coming out of the apartment building, looking perfectly pleased to see him. She seems to notice the look he's giving her, so she launches into an explanation he doesn't need to ask for.

"I was just visiting Naruto, dropping off a gift for his birthday. He didn't even get up to let me in, I practically had to break the door down." She laughs, waving a hand behind her, then her green gaze locks curiously on the arm behind his back. "Are you doing the same?"

He white-knuckles the chrysanthemum, shifting his weight to his other foot. "Kind of," is all he offers.

Sakura's eyes seek his again and he can see the question in them but he ignores it in favor of sending a message of his own, a request for her to leave him to it.

She nods slowly, then grins at him. "See you later, Sasuke-kun! Make sure Naruto doesn't oversleep and makes it to our meeting with Kakashi-sensei!"

Then she's walking away, back home probably, and Sasuke's arm falls back to his side and he looks down at the orange blossom in his fist.

This stupid flower wasn't worth the trouble, he thinks, but then he marches forward with newfound determination and pushes the door to the building open and starts up the stairs. 

He feels heat start to pool on his face, fire spreading down his neck the closer he gets to Naruto's door. His breath comes a little quicker, his heart somehow both pounding and barely fluttering at the same time. He feels a little lightheaded.

When he stops in front of Naruto's door, the numbers on the front long since peeled off, the wood where they'd been lighter than the wood around it, he hesitates.

Sasuke raises his hand to knock, holds his breath, then lowers it. 

He plays this game with himself for a while, raising and lowering his arm until his shoulder starts to ache.

Finally, he puts the flower down on the floor and starts to back away, figuring Naruto will see it when he finally drags himself out of the house for training, but then he stops, and steps back up.

What are the chances, he wonders, what are the chances that Naruto will be quick to answer the door?

Sakura had said he's still asleep, but what are the odds he's gotten up in the few minutes it took Sasuke to get here?

It's slim, but there's a chance he has.

Sasuke's just going to have to take that chance.

He nudges the flower closer with a foot, then raises his fist to knock and, before he loses his nerve, raps on the door sharply before turning and bolting back down the stairs. 

As he reaches the bottom, he hears a door creak open.

* * *

Naruto groans into his pillow. He already had to deal with Sakura almost punching the door off its hinges, now this? Can't anyone let him sleep?

He drags himself out of bed, his pajamas wrinkled and his shirt riding up a little, and shuffles to the door. 

When he wrenches it open, he's surprised to see the hallway empty. 

He rubs at his sleepy eyes, wondering if they're playing tricks on him, but when he opens them again the same sight greets him. 

He grumbles to himself and goes to close the door when he notices something at his feet. It looks like...a flower?

Naruto bends down to pick it up and scrunches his brow. 

It's orange. And it's from Ino's shop, if the white logo on the wrapping is anything to go by.

Who would give him a flower?

He notices a tag wrapped around the stem and he focuses on the writing there. It's neat cursive, obviously Ino's penmanship.

_Chrysanthemum,_ she wrote, _loyalty and devotion, both romantic and platonic._

That's the meaning of the flower, he guesses, but who would give this to him? He flips the tag over out of sheer curiosity and finds another message in a messier scrawl, hurried, almost. 

He recognizes it immediately, and his heart jumps in his chest.

_It reminded me of you._

And then, under that, much smaller and more cramped due to lack of space:

_Happy birthday._

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's](https://www.flowermeaning.com/chrysanthemum-flower-meaning/) where I found the flower meaning, I'm not well versed in flower language so forgive me if this is wrong!
> 
> The _real_ Kiku no Sekku falls on September 9, but I feel like the title fits. :D
> 
> Comments and kudos are nice. Thank you. <3


End file.
